SPORTS OF THE TIMES

SPORTS OF THE TIMES; DAVE WINFIELD'S REBUTTAL

By Dave Anderson

Published: March 7, 1988

Through the years, whenever Dave Winfield was asked for his reaction to having been stung by another of George Steinbrenner's tirades, the Yankee outfielder would invariably shake his head.

''I don't want to get into that,'' he would say. ''Not now. Maybe someday. But not now.''

Someday has arrived. Someday will soon be on display in bookstores in ''Winfield, a Player's Life,'' his autobiography written in collaboration with Tom Parker (W. W. Norton & Company). But the subtitle should be ''A Player's Proud Life,'' because Dave Winfield is a proud man, deservedly.

He writes proudly of what he has accomplished on and off the baseball field, of his Yankee teammates and managers, of his years with the San Diego Padres, of his struggle growing up on the streets of St. Paul, of his years at the University of Minnesota, of the Winfield Foundation for kids that he formed, finances and fosters.

But knowing that this might be his last Yankee season, the 36-year-old slugger who has been degraded by the principal owner as ''not a winner'' and ''Mr. May'' has decided to offer his rebuttal.

''The mindset of a team,'' Winfield writes, ''is absolutely crucial to how the players will perform. Professionals or not, there has to be some joy in it, if only to relieve the pressure that builds over a 162-game season. A team doing well can have a lot of fun . . . you can have a great time. With Steinbrenner, though, it's win or lose, live or die. The man shows up and the fun's gone, the pressure's on.''

After this season, Winfield will also be gone if the principal owner exercises his option to buy out the last two years of a 10-year contract for about $1.9 million. With his book, Winfield might have assured that buyout. ''It's like there are only two kinds of moves on the Yankees,'' he writes. ''The ones made because George is displeased, and the ones made because he soon will be. Sensing this, the players begin to doubt their manager. They can't believe any more than the press or the fans can, that any manager's moves are his own. And when those moves come willynilly and without rhyme or reason, everyone gets edgy. And if a manager goes public and stops pretending that he agrees with all the strange decisions made by the 'Yankees,' he's gone and Billy Martin is back.''

Judging by Winfield's memory of John McNamara, now the Boston Red Sox manager but then his Padre manager, he prefers to be patted rather than prodded.

''John is a quiet, thoughtful man you could really talk to,'' Winfield writes. ''He'd ask you how you felt and what you were thinking. He'd point out any problems with your play, suggest things you might need to work on. But mostly he'd emphasize what you were doing right. It instilled confidence, and even through those lean years, it made me feel good to be playing for him.''

Winfield has seldom felt good playing for Steinbrenner, especially after the principal owner tried to renege on the Yankees' $300,000 commitment to the Winfield Foundation.

In the book, Winfield remembered a 1982 conversation about the foundation money in Steinbrenner's trailer-office outside Fort Lauderdale Stadium at spring training.

'' 'Look,' I say, finally gaining an audience with him,'' Winfield writes. '' 'Let's get together and settle this. . . .' but George waves me off, he has the Governor of Florida on the line. When he finally hangs up I ask him, 'Why don't you pay the money?' '' 'I'm not going to pay,' he snaps like a spiteful kid. '' 'I don't get it.' '' 'That's just the way it goes.' '' 'The way it goes?'

'' 'Yep.' George turns back to the phone. Our meeting is over. I walk out furious, not caring if I ever play another inning of Yankee baseball. From that moment on I'm committed to only one thing - making George keep his part of the bargain.''

Winfield eventually obtained a court order forcing Steinbrenner to fulfill the $300,000 commitment.

''I wasn't sure then, and I'm still not, what his gripe is with me,'' Winfield writes. ''Part of it is, I think, as a frustrated athlete, George wants to 'own' his players, wants them up on their flippers barking for fish like trained seals. And from the beginning, I refused to bark.''

Winfield refused to bark when Steinbrenner attempted to bully the Yankee players into supporting Commissioner Peter Ueberroth's 1985 call for each major league player's participation in a drug-testing program.

As the Yankees' player rep, Winfield interrupted Steinbrenner, charging him with trying to circumvent the Players Association. Steinbrenner stormed out of the clubhouse. The next day Winfield was called to a meeting with Steinbrenner, who was ''far more concerned,'' Winfield writes, with what he saw ''as a confrontation'' between them.

'' 'It's not good for the team,' George goes on,'' Winfield writes.

'' 'Not good for the team!' That gets me. I flash on all he's done to undermine us, make us skittery and nervous. 'I'll tell you what's not good for the team.' '' The next day, Winfield writes, they met again, with the principal owner requesting that Winfield assure the players that their clubhouse incident was not a ''confrontation.'' After Winfield complied in another clubhouse meeting that Steinbrenner attended, he writes:

''But as we get up to take the field, George suddenly chimes, 'But keep in mind, there's only one admiral on this ship. There may be some vice-admirals, but only one admiral. So let's get out there and have some fun.' It leaves me, and everybody else, speechless.''